NRL 2025
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Big kick coming up.
At 26-10, and I was saying it to myself, why did QLD not go for 2?
At 26-6, why did QLD go for a short dropout?
Will these calls come back to bite them?
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NSW have kicked 2 from 8 this series.
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Big finish coming up.
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Haas knocks on! QLD should hold on.
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Does Paul Gallen speak English?
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well, @booboo doing a sparky on a game thread he didn't even like was a waste of 25 posts.
Incredible game of league. Conditions were absolutely shithouse weren't they? The quintessential game of two halves. In the first half Qld didn't make errors, and played on the front foot, allowing their halves to dominate. In the 2nd NSW minimised the errors, stopped giving away thuggy penalties, while Qld made error after error. And so we end up with a close game.
First half started weirdly, with a couple of errors each, but NSW on the board with a bit of a lucky try. After that Qld took over. They ran hard, hit really hard, and that allowed Munster and Dearden to play down hill. NSW were very lucky not to get two guys in the bin, and i imagine at least Luia will get a stint on the sidelines. Lomax whacking Loiero was a double bonus, as it gave a penalty and took Trent out of the game. 26-6 was an amazing half time score.
2nd half was the complete opposite, NSW tidied their discipline up, played to their strengths and really got stuck in, while Qld went completely to pieces. Error after error, 6-agains, stupid short drop outs, bad reads on defense over and over again. The 2nd half was how i (and possibly NSW) expected the whole game to go.
In the end there was no sense of joy, either on my couch, or in the Qld camp. They probably should have lost that given the goal kicking woes. Still, we get an unexpected decider, and there were serious signs of life out of Qld.
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Obviously the talking point out of the game for controversy merchants and social media deadshits is the penalty count of 10-2.
If you take the 6-again counts in it's more like 12-8, and given two penalties were for an eye gouge and an elbow to the head, i don't think there is too much to whinge about.I am, however, starting to get on the side of the guys who are critical of the 6-again era. They are having huge impacts on games, and it can come almost impossible to stop momentum as teams get a long run of possession. They aren't scrutenised as they happen on the run, and there is no accountability around them. I think refs get carried away with them because they don't have to stop the game to give the attacking team another leg up, so they are way harsher on the infringements than they would be if they had to blow the whistle.
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Players:
For Qld, there were some absolute heroes. Up the Wahs!! Capewell with another entry to the "mariner doesn't know ball" file, he was best on ground i thought. Punished in defense, ran with freedom, got a dot. Huge game. The maligned Rueben Cotter wasn't far behind him, threw himself in to absolutely everything. The halves redemmed themselves behind a beaten pack (though i though Munster overdid the hero runs in the 2nd half). Carrigan was an absolute mile better than the very average Loiero.
Flip side? Toia did beautifully for the first try, and then had an absolute mare. Dropped the ball, bad read after bad read in defense. Latrell gave him an absolute bath. Kalyn Ponga proved his knights form is not due to his team mates, he's just playing shit. Absolute waste of a jersey last night. I've mentioned Loiero, but Tino dropped it cold far too many times for the so called leader.
For NSW, the myth of Nathan Cleary grows ever more. Absolute rubbish game from him. When NSW had repeated sets in the last 5 minutes his only play was a dump to Haas. Luai was rocks and diamonds. Bad errors, a fucking eye gouge, but did set up a few tries. Lomax had a shocker. Spencer Leniu is all chat, got absolutely owned by Collins.
If Cleary is out, and Luai gets suspended, with Moses already gone, suddenly NSW is under enormous pressure.
